NUPI Research Online (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
Not a member yet
1579 research outputs found
Sort by
The unsolicited rocket: a story of science, technology, and future wars
Get PDFThis article investigates the puzzling case of the unsolicited rocket: a Norwegian research establishment successfully developed a weapon system that no one wanted or had asked for that was later widely adopted. We argue that the ‘Terne’ weapon existed not because it was needed based on rational calculations about efficiency, but because of the narratives, coalitions, and competitive dynamics that surrounded it and made it useful. Conventionally, war and technology are often considered distinct ‘things’ with immutable essences, used as variables to explain other phenomena, rather than being examined on their own terms. In this case, we focus empirically on the configuration of sociotechnical imaginaries, and the capacities for action that arise out of it. In foregrounding sociotechnical systems, this is not a case of the ‘militarization’ of civilian society and research in peacetime. Rather, agency lay in competitive networks of narratives and coalitions between technologies, individuals, professions, technological communities, military organizations, and funding bodies, together shaping how ideas and technologies become authoritative and dominant.The unsolicited rocket: a story of science, technology, and future warspublishedVersio
Norges klimaomdømme på Twitter
Get PDF©2022 Tatjana Stankovic, Ole Jacob Sending og Indra Øverland. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.Citation: Stankovic, T., Sending, O. J. & Øverland, I. (2022). Norges klimaomdømme på Twitter. Internasjonal Politikk, 80(1), 221–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/intpol.v80.3762221Årgang 80, Nummer 1, side 221–235, 2022, ISSN 1891-1757, www.tidsskriftet-ip.no, Publisert juni 2022*Kontaktinformasjon: Tatjana Stankovic, e-post: [email protected] – fagfellevurdertFokus: Norskklima- oguteNrikspolitikkNorges klimaomdømme på TwitterTatjana Stankovic*Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI), NorgeOle Jacob SendingNorsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI), NorgeIndra ØverlandNorsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI), NorgeSammendragI denne artikkelen undersøker vi om olje- og gassproduksjonen har negativ innvirkning på Norges klimaomdømme. Dette gjør vi ved å kartlegge mel-dinger som ble lagt ut på Twitter i forbindelse med det 26. klimatoppmøtet (COP 26) i Glasgow. For å sette Norges omdømme i perspektiv, sammenlik-ner vi Twitter-meldingene om Norge og Sverige. Studien viser at det er liten forskjell mellom meldingene som omhandler Norge og Sverige når det gjelder negative holdninger. Vi finner imidlertid to trekk som er av interesse for for-ståelsen av Norges omdømme. For det første er meldingene tematisk ulike: De dominerende temaene i meldingene som nevner Sverige handler om å fremme overgangen til grønn energi og klimaaktivisme, mens de dominerende temaene i meldingene om Norge i hovedsak handler om klimafinansiering og behovet for utfasing av produksjon av fossilt brensel. For det andre er de negative meldingene om Sverige av mer generell karakter, knyttet til kritikk av alle lands manglende omstilling, mens de negative meldingene om Norge er spesifikk, knyttet til olje- og gassproduksjon.Norges klimaomdømme på TwitterpublishedVersio
A functional approach to decentralization in the electricity sector: learning from community choice aggregation in California
Get PDFpublishedVersio
Norges oljedilemma etter Glasgow: Et umoralsk argument for et raskt grønt skifte
Get PDFpublishedVersio
United clubs of Europe: Informal differentiation and the social ordering of intra-EU diplomacy
Get PDFThis article makes the case for integrating informal, social and minilateral dynamics in analyses of ‘differentiated integration’ in the European Union (EU) context. In EU studies, differentiated integration has mainly served as an analytical lens for studying variation in states’ degree of formalized commitment to the European integration project or in organizational decision-making procedures across policy areas. While this focus has generated important analytical and empirical insights, three dimensions tend to be lost when limiting the study of differentiated integration to negotiated outcomes manifest in legal documents and decision-making procedures. First, informal processes of integration precede and concur with formal ones. Second, European integration is an inherently social process, and member states integrate with the EU identity-building project in different ways and to different degrees. Third, member states enjoy heterogeneous social ties with one another, routinely forming informal bi- and minilateral coalitions in everyday decision-shaping processes. More knowledge about these informal and social dynamics can give us a better understanding of how differentiated integration manifests itself in practice and where the European integration process is heading. The theoretical argument is buttressed by data from the 2020 European Council of Foreign Relations’ ‘Coalition Explorer’ survey, showing how partner preferences within the EU continue to reflect stable social sub-orders.publishedVersio
Identification and physical disconnect in Russian foreign policy: Georgia as a Western proxy once again?
Get PDFEvolving official Russian identifications of Georgia amount to a dangerous securitisation of this small neighbour – achieved through a focus not on Georgia itself but on Western engagement in the region. With the long absence of face-to-face diplomatic encounters and contact, the Russian idea of Georgia as a ‘Western proxy’ has become entrenched. This article advances a social explanation of Russian foreign policy that speaks to geopolitical explanations in foregrounding great power interaction and security by drawing on insights from a discourse-theoretical reading of securitisation theory. It adds value to social explanations by showing how the identification of another political entity can be changed into that of a ‘proxy’ through its integration into a larger ‘radically different other’, and how this expansion occurs in interplay with interpretations of physical manifestations of the larger ‘radically different other’ in the ‘proxy’. Finally, it draws attention to the impact of physical encounters on foreign policy in these times of COVID-19, war, and growing isolationism in world affairs.Identification and physical disconnect in Russian foreign policy: Georgia as a Western proxy once again?publishedVersio
L’architecture de sécurité intérieure burkinabé face à la gestion d’une crise multidimensionnelle
Get PDFPour faire face à la crise multidimensionnelle que traverse le Sahel depuis 2012, c’est principalement la réponse militaire qui a été privilégiée. Il est pourtant tout aussi important de s’intéresser au rôle que jouent les forces de sécurité intérieure dans la lutte contre l’insécurité protéiforme qui affecte l’espace sahélien. A cet égard, le Burkina Faso constitue un terrain particulièrement riche d’enseignements. Confronté au débordement sur son sol de la crise malienne tout comme à l’émergence de dynamiques de violences proprement endogènes, le Burkina Faso se trouve ainsi confronté à un immense défi sécuritaire, qui lui a imposé de repenser ses approches de la politique de défense, de la lutte contre le terrorisme et de la sécurité sous-régionale mais aussi sa conception de la sécurité publique, dans un contexte où les menaces sont désormais tout autant locales qu’extérieures.L’architecture de sécurité intérieure burkinabé face à la gestion d’une crise multidimensionnellepublishedVersio
Islamist Social Movements and Hybrid Regime Types in the Muslim World
Get PDFSince the Arab Uprisings in 2010–2011 and subsequent counter- revolutions, socio-economic and political crises have occurred with rapid frequency in the Arab Middle East, North Africa, and the Sahel. The aim of our special issue is to investigate how and why social movements that use references to Islam or an explicit Islamist framework have adapted their ideology and their toolbox in order to negotiate and navigate the social and political terrain created by the upheavals in the recent period? Using recent field data to enrich our knowledge of Islamist movements in countries where the Islamist phenomenon has been understudied, this collection pro- vides a framework to understand the growing political volatility and hybridity in Islamist repertoires of contention. The authors of the volume each analyse cases of Islamist social movements shifting, or attempting to shift, from one repertoire to another – from transna- tional to national, from non-violent to violent or vice versa. The collection shows that social movements adapt in different ways and make use of resources available to them, at times moving far beyond their established ideology and traditional theological references.Islamist Social Movements and Hybrid Regime Types in the Muslim WorldpublishedVersio
Au nom du développement? L’économie morale d’un partenariat secteur privé–ONG en Ethiopie
Get PDFPrivate actors have, over the past decade, entered the field of development operating in new forms of partnerships with established aid actors. Private actors now constitute a central means and objective of publicly funded development aid, causing a growth in actors operating in the name of development but without being compelled to follow established development discourses or principles. This article explores the formation of one such ‘strategic partnership’ in northern Ethiopia, between a small publicly funded Norwegian NGO and a multinational corporation. The research draws on several fieldworks in Ethiopia, stakeholder interviews, and project observations in 2018 and 2019, complemented with grey literature review. Using the concept of ‘interface’, the article explores the various encounters between actors with different rationales and mandates that prove hard to reconcile in practice; the seemingly altruistic development aid drawing on participatory approaches to target beneficiaries’ needs is at odds with the corporate logic and accountabilities to shareholders and investors. The partnership and project formations are undermined by the practical encounter of these distinct logics, as the private actor gradually withdraws from joint project operations to maintain its corporate reputation. Any notion of participatory planning and local knowledge – here conceived of in terms of moral economy – are omitted from the project formation process, thus, not only undermining a central principle of aid programming, but also making the publicly funded aid project into a proxy for corporate interests.In the name of development? The moral economy of a private sector–NGO partnership in EthiopiaAu nom du développement? L’économie morale d’un partenariat secteur privé–ONG en EthiopiepublishedVersio